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A review by ellelainey
Please Like and Subscribe by Bradley Scott
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
~
Please Like and Subscribe, by Bradley Scott
★★★★★
364 pages
1st person, past tense, dual character POV
Tropes: and they were roommates, golden retriever, cinnamon roll, influencer x white collar, slow burn
Triggers: (mentioned or in passing by secondary character) casual misogyny, biphobia, cult-ish behaviour, history of family mental health issues, casual drug use, casual attitude towards drinking, hints of depression from work stress
(explored or mentioned by main characters) infidelity, couples therapy, anxiety
Please Like and Subscribe is an incredibly heartfelt, real portrayal of the struggles one couple face while finding their way to each other. Saying that feels like a massive over-simplification of what I've just read, but that is the crux of the story – Jerry and Dax are navigating life, love, friends and work to find out how to fit together and what will make them happy. Along the way, we get to experience this incredibly romantic, sweet and wholesome friendship form between them.
I can't often say that I spent the majority of a book smiling, but every time Jerry and Dax were on page together I was either grinning at their adorable chemistry or biting my lip for other reasons. 👀 Scott did such a great job of making both main characters viscerally relatable and familiar – they both work regular jobs, regular homes and complicated relationships, weird friends and more troubles than they care to admit. Somehow, they come together beautifully, in a way that lets one be a tower of strength to the other just when they're needed.
Dax is...gosh, a cinnamon roll, golden retriever, puppy who just wants to appreciate and adore and salivate all over Jerry in the most adorable way. He's a budding influencer – not the making-mass-amounts-of-money type – who is struggling to find his niche and make it work for him. He's also got an on-again off-again relationship with his fiancee, Deana.
Jerry is still reeling from his husband Michael walking out six months ago with no warning, no rhyme or explanation to his actions. The A-h*le even took all the furniture in the house! Jerry has a job in the background of social media, which is what brings him back into Dax's orbit after a one night-stand together months ago. Having heard from Michael soon after that night, he's now actively trying to repair his marriage with couples therapy...if only Michael would cooperate.
NOTE: For a full run-down of how they met and how drastic Michael's departure was for Jerry, I STRONGLY recommend reading Only One Nightstand first. In fact, read it immediately before Please Like and Subscribe, because although both are written to standalone they provide context and continuity to each other that makes them better read as a pair.
Together, Jerry and Dax are...adorable, fun, loveable. I could probably go on for a while.
For those of us who read the prequel, the book starts with us seeing how they've been doing since Only One Nightstand. For anyone coming in fresh, they get to find out who Dax and Jerry are, what their lives are like and what their home/relationship situations are. It takes about 12% to set the stage, which is important because a lot happens in those pages that you don't really appreciate or realise until closer to 15%.
I'll admit – at first, it feels like a slow start, but once you get to around 13-15%, you begin to see the foreshadowing and context of everything that had to happen before we could reach a certain point. The book really picks up pace and grows more comfortable within itself when Jerry and Dax meet (again) at 12-13%.
When it comes to Michael, well...the less said the better? I hated him in the prequel. He wasn't even on page and I loathed the man for all that he'd put Jerry through. Here? Well, here there was one quote that really stuck in my teeth to remind me just how much I hated him and how right I was to hate him, because Michael is SO full of red flags and poor Jerry is just a colour-blind lovesick fool. Oh, and this all happened well before he finally appeared on page (at 34% - which, in my opinion, was still far too soon. Never would have been too soon. )
“A library. I've always wanted one. I got rid of my books when I moved in with Michael, because we didn't have the room.”
He'd called them 'clutter', like I was a hoarder and they were garbage.”
If that ^ doesn't tell me everything I ever needed to know about Michael, then I don't know what might.
Ahem. Moving on....
Side characters! I love a good cast of side characters and Scott did a brilliant job of making them, again, relatable and realistic, but also interesting, with their own lives and complexities and issues. I loved the women! I don't often get to say that about an MM or LGBT story, since sometimes women end up the villain or caricatures, but the women Scott wrote were strong, real and feisty! I loved them. From the background character of Gina, who kicked ass; Jerry's friend Zoe, who had some interesting ways of 'breaking up' with her ex; and most of all Deana.
Weirdly, though I'm not at all a grouchy person by nature, I related the most to Deana. Her inability to cope with Dax's puppy-energy and himbo nature, or suffer fools like Chad – so appropriately named because he's the biggest Chad bro-dude energy I've ever seen! – really reminds me of myself. I get the same impatient, frustrated way and have to stop myself from saying something mean just because I'm sick of repeating or explaining myself. So, I *get* Deana on a visceral level!
I really loved her complex relationship with Dax. They'd been friends forever, in a relationship for so long they can't remember being anything else, but they also need some time apart every now and then, to regroup and refresh. I actually love how mature they were about it – when they're on a break, they're not together so they can see other people, yet they're still loyal to each other in the ways that count. I also really loved how she tried so hard to understand Dax, even when it pushed her to her limits, because she genuinely loved him, in a way that went beyond their relationship.
Then there's Aaron. Dear, sweet, over-worked Aaron desperately needs someone in his life to help him unwind. I would LOVE to see that, like seriously – I'm begging here 👉👈 Please? Aaron needs someone to remind him to live outside of work, because that boy is so over-worked it's ridiculous. His coping mechanisms aren't the best, but he tries so damned hard that I really got attached to him. The way he helped Dax, and DnD, was such good friendship-goals that I melted for Aaron.
I also want to mention what good bisexual rep there was! Scott wrote Dax with such heart and depth. I loved how deeply he loved Deana, how he slowly fell in love with Jerry, and the journey that took Dax on, into discovering himself. I love that he's quite demisexual, in that he really needs a connection with someone before he can even think about being with them physically, and he's a loyal puppy who just wants to make people feel loved and wanted when he's with someone. He's not a bed-hopper and he can't even recognise when people are flirting with him, which just makes the whole himbo, cinnamon roll, golden retriever thing even more sweet. I love good, positive bi rep, and this was exactly that.
Jerry is...well, Jerry is someone I want to wrap up in a hug and squeeze until he can't breathe. Then I want to give him a good shake and ask what he was ever thinking by getting involved with someone like Michael. I think, deep down, Jerry has a fix-him problem, but it was so lovely to go on the journey with him, to see him starting to see that side of himself, to watch him grow and learn from his past mistakes to see that an alternative option was available. He didn't have to repeat old mistakes anymore, just because it was comfortable and he felt like he'd failed in his marriage. He didn't have to feel that way because it wasn't true. He'd just been in a marriage alone, which is a terrible thing to be. He'd done his best, he's stuck around, he'd worked hard and tried everything to save his marriage, but in the end, it was the journey he went on to *find himself* that mattered most, and that all began with Dax.
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I could talk about this book all day. I stayed up until 3am to finish it and even at 11am the next day I'm still not over it. I'm going to have a book hangover from this! But it is SO worth it.
Please Like and Subscribe is surprisingly wholesome, fun and romantic. It's got heart and depth and soul, and it takes you on a journey that brings two people together who desperately need something good in their lives, who need to be loved and understood and appreciated. And they get that, from each other. It's got a final two chapters that had my cheeks sore from grinning. It's got an HEA. It's....satisfying and engrossing and all-encompassing. It makes me want to kick my feet and giggle over it for a few more hours, while I mentally run through my favourite parts again.
It's happy and sad and heartbreaking and heart-mending. Please Like and Subscribe is a rollercoaster of emotions that gave me the feel-good injection I really needed this week. And it's worked it's way onto my Best of 2024 list. I'll be reading anything and everything else Bradley Scott writes, from now on.
~
Favourite Quote
“Having Dax around was incredibly different. Not just from living alone, which I hated, but even from when Michael was here. Dax filled the space, and what he filled it with was all good stuff. Warmth. Joy. Fun.”
“Just because you wanted something doesn’t mean you took it. We’re humans, not animals.
Sure, we’d all love to do the stuff that felt good. Sleep all day. Eat cupcakes. Grab a married guy with a shitty husband and ride him until his d*ck falls off.”